After much calling around, I finally located a source for bentonite - a local well driller supply house - so we are about to make some horn clay for the farm. Greg Willis' instructions (below) don't say if the clay should be wet or dry when filling the cow horns. Bentonite expands considerably with water, so if wet, how wet? Also, I've heard about using clay plugs when making 500. Is that a good thing to use bentonite for as well?
Richard From: Greg Willis Subj: Horn Clay To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 21:54:52 -0500 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- For all you inveterate BD Trekkers, here is a bold new world to enter. I spoke with Hugh Courtney about horn clay and his observation was that clay makes the field seem "smoother". I have been doing it for two years now and find that, intuitively speaking, the 500-501-clay sequence seems to complete the process, it rounds it out, brings it to its fullness. (Does anyone out there speak "intuitive"?) I wish I had some extra to pass around but I do not. You will have to make it yourselves for now. Ask JPI to make some. Or make some with a local BD organization. These are the instructions we give our clients. Greg Willis #509 Horn Clay Technical Data We make four kinds of horn clay. We use bentonite clay because it is available and already ground to a powder. We pack it in the horns exactly the same as horn silica. We call it #509. We spray a Spring to Fall horn clay that is applied in the Spring; a Fall to Spring clay that is applied in the Fall; a Spring to Spring clay (one year in the ground) for new Spring applications; and a Fall to Fall horn clay for new Fall applications. These latter two would be for new fields and fields in a state of severe neglect. Thereafter use the six month clay started at the same time as the spray application. The year is divided into Spring and Fall by the summer and winter solstices. Mix a rounded 1/2 teaspoon per acre in rain water or solarized water and stir for 60 minutes, then apply. For soils deficient in clay, we use a rounded full teaspoon per acre. You will find that a double application will be far more effective than one double strength application. Horn clay will stay active for a minimum of 3 hours and has a residual effect of about six months, so it is well to apply it twice a year. Commentary Horn clay is very important to the success of the application of the preparations. Without the horn clay, it is simply not possible for the biodynamic system of preparations to reach its fullest potential. The misuse or lack of use of horn clay over the years since the original lectures has had a very limiting effect on the progress of biodynamics. Clay works to connect the concepts in the human mind just as it works to connect the effects of silica and clay. Those who do not use it do not benefit from the complete understanding of the what the Universe has to offer. So the lack of use of clay, or horn clay, has a limiting effect on the benefits and the understanding of the basic system. Clay plays the part of the mediator, in a sense, like water. It acts to connect the various disparate elements of Nature into a coherent whole. Without the action and activity of clay to hold it together, it is not possible for the various elements to carry out their respective duties. How does this come about? Let us look at clay more closely. You will notice that it has a very strong positive and negative bonding properties. These properties are representative of the nature of clay. It holds together or bonds the various elements so that they can work together. It is, in a very real sense, the glue that binds the soil together. Without this glue, it is not possible for soil to gain the kind of structure, both physical and etheric, necessary for a plant to properly exist. This structure, emblematic of the structure of the Universe, is what holds soils together. So we see that the nature of clay is that is binds and connects, both at once. These physical realities or observations work exactly in the same manner in the astral and etheric worlds. All work together. Why is it important to make horn clay? This too is very much like the other remedies. It is important to at once conserve and utilize the homeopathic properties of the clay. Bentonite clay is more than adequate to do the job. Other local clays work very well too. The horn clay works homeopathically as do the others. By placing the clay in the soil as you would horn silica, you are greatly increasing its power to radiate its spiritual properties over large areas. So it is at once more efficient and more beneficial for all the same reasons the silica and cow manure are placed in the horn first. The presence of horn clay in a field will bring together or bind the various disparate elements that you are applying. This is the genius of God. By further preparing the horn clay as you would the BD 500 and BD 501, you are creating a sympathetic presence in the field as well. The horn clay that is prepared in the Fall to Spring gets applied in the following Fall. The clay that is buried in the Spring to Fall is applied in the following Spring. The clay that is set in the soil in the Fall and kept there for a full year is best used remedially as a Fall application in fields that are in a state of severe neglect. This would be the horn clay of choice to begin. The same may be said of the one year old Spring horn clay. Apply the following Spring. After you have created an inventory of the four horn clays, you will see that the one year old clay works best as a beginning clay and the six month clay works best for better agricultural areas which have experienced the BD approach for some time. Then and only then will you be using the six month clay. In other words, the one year clay first, the six month clay as time goes on. Horn clay may be stored like the BD 501 in a glass bottle in the window or it may be placed in the dark. But it is best to place it in a bottle, not plastic. It has a life expectancy of at least five years. It may be reactivated by placing it in the ground at solstice time (either one) for about a week. Place it in the ground in a glass container only without a metallic lid. It would be best to place it in the ground with jar with a cork lid. One week is sufficient to recharge the clay for another year. Much more cannot be expected. Further Commentary Horn clay should be clay. Bentonite will do but others are in many ways just as good. You need to experiment. Do not use feldspar or Kaolin as the clay medium. They are too close to silica and not far enough away to do much good. The difference between the horn clay and BD 500 and BD 501 is that it should be placed in the ground for the entire year. It must experience all the facets of the sun, the moon and the Earth as she rotates and revolves around the sun. The horn clay works to mediate not just between the silica and the limestone, it mediates between the physical, astral and the etheric. In many ways it is similar to oak bark (BD #505). Though oak bark is rich in calcium, it is also rich in the astral energy necessary to bring the plant into bodily form. It works the same way with the soil. It brings it and all that live within into bodily form too. Even the worms, insects, and bacteria among all the others. Everything is effected by the strong astral energies of the oak bark. Thus it can also be used to enhance the areas that have been devastated by methyl bromide and other life killers in the soil. It can be mixed with 500 for this purpose. Horn clay is best applied in the Spring time. That does not mean that it cannot be applied at other times of the year. Do so only at the full moon days - three before and three after. Morning or evening it does not matter. It is not necessary to worry about whether or not it will rain with regard to the horn clay. Apply it. No problem unless it is raining at the time in a steady rain. Unlike the other BD preparations, the clay actually enjoys a little rain at the time it is applied. It works to bring together all the astral and etheric qualities in the plants, the soil and the air and water. It actually thrives on water. Notice how "bloated" clay gets in water. It loves it. Between the Horn Clay and the #800 Stinging Nettle - Basalt tea, you have two of the most important mechanisms developed to bring the kind of harmony and balance and healing to the vines that you need to do. © 1998 Greg Willis. All Rights Reserved. Published by Agri-Synthesis®, Inc. . Napa, CA 94581 . (707) 258-9300 . Fax (707) 259-9393
